---
title: And in obedience to his command they started the caravan forward, le… — The grateful elephant · tree and pragmatics
description: And in obedience to his command they started the caravan forward, leaving the things just as they were. Who acts: drivers, leader. A sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The grateful elephant, Opening, part 14, sentence 137

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And in obedience to his command they started the caravan forward, leaving the things just as they were.

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**Who acts:** drivers, leader · **What happens:** start, leave, be, command · **To what, where:** caravan, obedience, things · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (drivers, leader), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg74064:14:145
# text = And in obedience to his command they started the caravan forward, leaving the things just as they were.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	obedience	obedience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	command	command	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	caravan	caravan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	forward	forward	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
13	leaving	leave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	obj	_	_
16	just	just	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
17	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **start** | past | drivers *= driver* | the caravan |  | obedience to leader's command |  | forward *property* | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent caravan=Eventuality |
| 2 | **leave** | gerund | drivers *= driver* *not said here* | the things |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Theme |
| 3 | **be** | past | drivers *= driver* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **command** |  | leader |  |  |  |  |  | nom command «communication transitive»: poss=agent |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Project Gutenberg book 74064 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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